Nature called the captain of Delta flight 6132 about 30 minutes into the short trip from Asheville, NC to La Guardia Airport in New York. This was probably pretty routine, until the captain couldn’t get out of the bathroom.

A passenger discovered what was going on and attempted an assist by alerting the co-pilot about the situation. Unfortunately, the co-pilot found the passenger’s thick foreign accent rather disturbing.

According to the co-pilot’s conversation with air-traffic control, recorded and posted on LiveATC.net, the foreign-sounding passenger was attempting to gain access to the cockpit with a password, but he was “not about to let him in.” Air-traffic control shared his concern and began the process of dealing with such a situation, telling the co-pilot he should “declare an emergency and get on the ground.”

This became unnecessary, as the pilot was eventually able to free himself in time to land the plane.

While it’s good that air-traffic control seemed to act quickly and calmly during the incident, it may be surprising that no one was the least bit concerned about allowing a man who can get stuck in the bathroom to land a plane full of people.